He said: ‘There’s delays every time. The road markings are a pain to anyone who lives in the local area.

‘I think the most people I have seen working on site is about nine people.

‘When you think it was supposed to have been completed in December and now they tell me today it won’t be until May that it’s completed.’

Paul Baseley lives at Ditcham Park, near Petersfield, and drives down to help his 87-year-old mum in Leigh Park.

He told The News: ‘How can they justify this kind of work taking so long?’

Leigh Park councillor Mike Fairhurst said the delays had been ‘disappointing’ but he did not blame Hampshire County Council, but the utility companies which are allowed to dig up pipes according to their own schedule.

He said: ‘The recent delay is because they discovered some service pipes that nobody knew about, even the service provider. It’s just a bad example of the confusion that always occurs with these utility companies.’

He added: ‘There’s no question it will be safer, but I am not sure it will be faster because of the traffic lights.’

Councillor Sean Woodward, in charge of transport at the county council, said: ‘I’d like to thank people for bearing with us so far, while we have been carrying out this scheme. Progress has not been as fast as we would have liked as we have encountered some issues with uncharted underground utilities which need to be moved.’